Hockey Reference Scraper

Extract NHL player stats, team rosters, season scoring leaders, draft picks, and player profiles from hockey-reference.com — the definitive source for professional hockey statistics.

What this actor does

• Five modes: search, playerStats, teamSeason, seasonLeaders, draft
• Player search — find any NHL player by name and get their profile links
• Player stats — career stats, bio, position, height/weight, nationality
• Team rosters — full season roster for any of 32 NHL teams
• Season leaders — top skaters or goalies for any NHL season (1990–2024)
• Draft classes — complete entry draft picks with amateur teams and NHL career stats
• Filters — narrow by position, nationality, with zero null fields in output

Output fields

Player / Search records

Field	Description
playerId	Hockey Reference player ID (e.g. mcdavco01)
playerName	Full name
position	C, LW, RW, D, or G
team	Last team played for
league	League (NHL, WHA, etc.)
hallOfFame	true if inducted
playerUrl	Canonical player page URL

Skater stats records

Field	Description
playerName	Player name
age	Age during season
team	Team abbreviation
position	Skating position
gamesPlayed, goals, assists, points	Core scoring stats
plusMinus	Plus/minus
penaltyMins	Penalty minutes
shotsOnGoal, shotPercent	Shot stats
evenStrengthGoals, powerPlayGoals, shortHandedGoals, gameWinningGoals	Goal breakdown
evenStrengthAssists, powerPlayAssists	Assist breakdown
timeOnIce, avgTimeOnIce	Ice time
faceoffWins, faceoffLosses	Faceoff stats
season	Season year

Goalie stats records

Field	Description
playerName, age, team	Identity
gamesPlayed, gamesStarted	Workload
goalieWins, goalieLosses, goalieTiesOrOT	Record
goalsAgainst, shotsAgainst, saves	Raw totals
savePercentage, goalsAgainstAvg	Rate stats
goalieShutouts	Shutouts
minutesPlayed, qualityStarts	Advanced
season	Season year

Draft pick records

Field	Description
draftYear, pickOverall	Draft position
team	Drafting team
playerName, position, nationality	Player info
draftAge, amateurTeam	Draft context
nhlGamesPlayed, nhlGoals, nhlAssists, nhlPoints	NHL career totals
goalieWins, savePercentage, goalsAgainstAvg	Goalie career stats

Team roster records

Field	Description
jerseyNumber, playerName, position	Core info
age, height, weight, shoots	Physical
birthDate, nationality	Bio
yearsExperience, team, season	Context

All records include recordType, sourceUrl, scrapedAt.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	search	search / playerStats / teamSeason / seasonLeaders / draft
searchQuery	string	Connor McDavid	Player name (mode=search)
playerIds	array	–	Hockey Ref player IDs, e.g. mcdavco01 (mode=playerStats)
team	select	EDM	NHL team abbreviation (mode=teamSeason)
season	integer	2024	Season end year 1990–2024 (modes: teamSeason, seasonLeaders)
statType	select	skaters	skaters or goalies (mode=seasonLeaders)
draftYear	integer	2023	Draft year 1963–2024 (mode=draft)
position	select	–	Filter by position: C, LW, RW, D, G
nationality	select	–	Filter by nationality code (CA, US, SE, FI, RU, ...)
maxItems	integer	50	Max records to emit (1–1000)

Example inputs

Search for a player

{"mode": "search", "searchQuery": "Connor McDavid", "maxItems": 5}

Get season leaders

{"mode": "seasonLeaders", "season": 2024, "statType": "skaters", "maxItems": 50}

Get a team's roster

{"mode": "teamSeason", "team": "EDM", "season": 2024}

Get a draft class

{"mode": "draft", "draftYear": 2023, "maxItems": 100}

Get player career stats

{"mode": "playerStats", "playerIds": ["mcdavco01", "gretzwa01"]}

Use cases

• Fantasy hockey — compare player stats, track scoring leaders by season
• Sports analytics — build historical datasets for player and team performance
• Scouting databases — track draft picks, amateur teams, career progression
• Hockey journalism — data-backed articles with verified stats
• Historical research — decade-by-decade scoring trends, nationality analysis
• Team management tools — roster depth charts with age, experience, stats

FAQ

What is Hockey Reference? Hockey Reference is operated by Sports Reference LLC and is the most comprehensive freely available source for NHL and international hockey statistics, covering every player and team since the NHL's founding.

How often is the data updated? Hockey Reference updates during the season typically within hours of games finishing. Historical data is stable.

What player ID format is used? Player IDs follow the pattern firstfiveoflastname + firsttwoffirstname + 01 (e.g. mcdavco01 for Connor McDavid). You can find IDs in any player page URL on hockey-reference.com.

What does the season field mean? The season end year — 2024 means the 2023–24 NHL season.

Can I get data for seasons before 1990? The season input accepts values down to 1990. Historical data is available on the site going back further, but the actor's tested range is 1990–2024.

What happens if a team abbreviation changed? The actor uses current team abbreviations (e.g. ARI for Arizona). Relocated franchises may have different historical slugs on the site.

Are null fields included? No. The actor uses strict omit-empty logic — only fields with real data appear in output records.